T. Jefferson

When I was a kid, we took a tour of Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson. I got lost from the tour and wandered into the dumb waiter. That’s where I met the ghost of Mr. Jefferson.

I didn’t know what a President was yet but I knew he was important, so I asked Mr. Jefferson if he invented chewing gum. He said, no, that was Benjamin Franklin. I said that I hope to one day invent something as great as gum. Thomas Jefferson said that the inventors of simple things like coffee, gum, and toilet paper will never be remembered. I said being well known is a burden because you have to constantly be aware of what you wear and do.

Thomas Jefferson said that it’s a small price to pay to be remembered for writing the Declaration of Independence. I said I hadn’t read it. I asked him what else he had done. He cleared his throat and quietly said he’d also written a children’s book called, Herdie’s Brother is a Kumquat. I said I loved that book and had read it over twenty times!